Stripping methods?

TL;DR blasting is half the cost of dipping.

I spoke with PJ, the owner of Strip Technologies in Knoxville at length. His business does all kinds of stripping, including classic cars. His dad, Larry Burchett, owns B Rod or Custom restorations which specializes in Corvettes and hot rods and has been featured in Motortrend. They do not have a problem with media contaminating everything during the restorations.

Dry ice blasting is amazing but ridiculously expensive. $2 per pound!

Plastic media is what they use on more delicate surfaces. A coarser material is used to remove filler. He didn't mention anything about soda.

He made an interesting point. Besides materials, they charge by the hour and there are certain things I can do to save money. First, he said it would go faster on a rotisserie, which they no longer provide. I'd have to purchase it, which wouldn't save me money at first, but it might eventually. Without the rotisserie, I could bring the car to them as a roller with wheels and suspension still installed, they would disassemble for a fee, put the shell on a "table," which would be put on a 2 post lift, and blasted from below (it would be reassembled afterwards). The rotisserie would eliminate the set up cost, shave time off the blasting, I'd have the benefits of having a rotisserie myself, and I could resell it afterwards if I choose not to keep it. I kinda like that idea...

Second, he said undercoating takes the longest to blast off and that's something I can do myself to save time and material. In my case, a previous owner went nuts with undercoating on the underside AND inside the trunk. It's bad. I could remove that myself with a scraper and heat gun, or just have them do it.

That's the direction I'm heading in.